@par_parenthese I dunno. That sounds pretty privileged to me, albeit in a less obvious way than having a trust fund.

My higher education was mostly state funded, too. I have a debt to pay off but I only start paying it once I earn over a certain amount. That's a privilege, to have a free or subsidised education. I didn't accrue debt as a student because the system here isn't one based on loans. Instead I worked and got some money from the dole. Which was hard work but I also was privileged to be living in a country, with a system, that does that.

I could probably afford this kind of trip. Since I don't have a huge debt from student loans, unlike many of the readers here, I don't have to work as constantly as I can in order to keep the interest from that from overwhelming me. I don't have a career where a year off early on will disadvantage me. I would be relatively sure that I could find some kind of job when I came back - although the fact that I've been looking for a new job for almost three years and finding nothing is maybe not a great sign of that.

I could MAYBE store stuff with relatives (this would be... tricky). I couldn't store much though, and I sort of can't afford to get rid of all my stuff because I can't afford to buy it again when I get home. Ok, sure, I could have fewer possessions, I could decide to live a different kind of life that involved luxuries like travelling instead of luxuries like... having a couch and a nice mattress and a fridge. I can't afford a car, so I bus an hour each way to work - which is not that much cheaper than running a car, in this city.

So sure, there is a point at which it's just different choices. But there are plenty of those choices that are couched in privilege. I've got to be honest here and say that I am basing this off the comments I skimmed and the first few paragraphs because I generally am not interested in stories about white people in other countries. That's just a personal preference, even when they ARE prefaced by explanations about how and why - I am a context-loving human, this makes some things, like travel narratives and pornography, a bit uninteresting.

@minijen I found this a couple years ago and have generally found these things to be well received. http://www.glorialemay.com/blog/?p=34 A few times, with people who are very private, I've given them the list and asked them to choose a couple things from it, if they'd like, and I'd follow through.

@hallelujah I recently read a thing, which I now cannot track down so it's just some person telling you on the internet, which must mean it's super reliable. But anyway it was saying that basically, toddlers get super into gender because 2-4 is when they are learning to distinguish themselves from others, and construct identity, so gender is an easy way to do that. This is the age a lot of kids get into princesses, for example. But then they grow out of it really quickly, in terms of development and being independently into it. It's just that, often, they are really positively reinforced for being into appropriately gendered toys and clothes, so they often stick with it much longer than they would if no one paid any attention to what colour they were wearing.

@iceberg When I was in primary school, one of my best friends was a hippie-bogan. Her younger brother had a mullet and often wore a black tshirt with the sleeves cut off. When he was about 3 they taught him to sing 'bad to the bone' and it's a shame that youtube didn't exist then because he would have been famous.

I have a few lesbian couple acquaintances who got pregnant and had babies. And you know, I was SO curious about the process, because I find that stuff really interesting. But I did not ask, because it was rude and not any of my business. If I were closer with them, or they had indicated a desire to talk about it, then maybe I would have. But as it is, their bits and what they do with them and why are totally not up for discussion.

@tales I DEFINITELY give the stinkeye (ha!) to people wearing too much perfume. And to Lush. I can't walk past that store without getting a headache and feeling nauseous. You see, I, too, am a delicate flower who is allergic to every damn thing. I am not, I don't think, a stinky hippie. In fact, sandlewood is my absolute LEAST favourite. And I do try not to be holier than thou, in general. But this is a thing that I feel strongly about, since it has a huge negative effect on my own life, and it's something that's easy for others not to do.

The worst, though, is smokers who can't smell anything, who then douse themselves in cheap scent to 'cover' the smell, and then get on the bus. Personally, I would prefer to sit next to someone who hasn't bathed in a month. Just as putrid, not as likely to give me a migraine.

All the smokers that I know personally are very polite about when and where they smoke, though. As with everything, there's a generally polite majority, and a few arseholes ruining it for everyone.